ends – Live 2005 Total Tone

ends is the solo project of Ryoichi Endo of Soft Ballet, started in 1997, and continuing until the present; it sounds nothing like Soft Ballet, though. He has a magnificent voice, but is unfortunately extremely overlooked and underrated. Musically, it is some sort of rock: I’ve seen the music described as psychedelic and there are elements of that sort of sound; the keyboards have an obvious psychedelic influence, and his older music had a drummer and a percussionist (but no bassist), which adds to that impression. I am terrible at identifying any but the most basic genres, so there are a couple of samples below.

Disc 1 is a show with full band: guitar, bass, keyboards, drums, and disc 2 is an unplugged version, with another guitarist instead of a keyboard player. It also has a koto (琴) player on the first few and the last few tracks; she was traditionally dressed on the first few tracks and more casually on the last few. The bonus track is from an unplugged concert in 2004, with a percussionist instead of a drummer, and is at a smaller venue and more truly unplugged. Each show has a different lineup; the 2005 unplugged had no keyboard player, an additional guitarist and koto player, and a different bassist from the first show; the 2004 unplugged had the same bassist as the first show and the same koto player as the 2005 unplugged but different guitarists and percussionist. There were six songs that were performed in both the electric and unplugged shows, and the extra was one of the repeated songs. The unplugged arrangements were enough different from the electric so that wasn’t that big of a deal, but I don’t think “Superior” really needed to be on there three times.

The first disc was not the most exciting concert I’ve ever seen (just five guys on stage), but was enjoyable; he is a very intense singer. The camera angles were a little odd; there was the foot-of-the stage angle, and lots of views of instruments and random body parts. Since ends is a solo project, the focus was on Endo himself, with a microphone in his face most of the time. My first impression was that the bassist got more screen time than the guitarist in the first few songs, but on rewatch, it seems more even. The guitarist was more likely to have focus on his guitar, while the bassist was more likely to be shown completely, though. The drummer got a few closeups, but all I know about the keyboard player was that he had long hair. Some combination of bassist, guitarist, and keyboard player sang backup; a few songs had pre-recorded backing vocals (choruses only); I don’t think the drummer had a microphone for this show, but could be wrong.

The unplugged set was not as unplugged as it could have been; the guitarists had acoustic-electric guitars mostly, and the bassist had a standard electric bass. Everyone had sheet music, and Endo had a stool and was looking in the general direction of the music most of the time, though that could have been just the way he was sitting. A few places, he did seem to be reading. Some combination of one of the guitarists (Shigeo Naka, from the other show), the bassist, and the drummer provided backing vocals for this part; there weren’t many songs with backing vocals, though. I’m generally not a big fan of unplugged-type shows, but did like this; the koto adds a different touch to some of the songs, and there is some gorgeous acoustic guitar in various places. Some of the arrangements are very different from the originals; they are jazzy or loungey or bluesy, and one made me think of some slow southern rock song (the guitar made me think of something like the Allman Brothers or Lynyrd Skynyrd; it’s a specific song it reminds me of, but I can’t place it).

The bonus track from 2004 looks like it’s a much smaller venue with everyone sitting in a circle except the bassist (off to the side) and is a much more traditionally unplugged performance: acoustic guitars and percussion and I don’t know what sort of bass that was (from something else; he wasn’t really on screen here; am looking for a better picture). The koto was there, but not used in this song.

The bonus track is the only extra; there wasn’t really anything on here beyond the performances themselves. There were no backstage bits, no MCs, no real interaction with the audience; I have a vague impression that the lack of audience interaction is just the way he is, though. That sort of thing is nice, but not necessary, especially since I don’t actually speak the language. The front cover has a fairly abstract (probably not the right word) version of him; there are a few small pictures on the back. The case is clear; the reverse of the cover is the stage, more or less, and there is an insert with lyrics and credits on one side and more pictures and art on the back.

I wish I had listened to him sooner; there are short clips from this on his site, but I wasn’t really impressed by them, and I’d been actively avoiding Soft Ballet for some reason. I finally had a chance to hear full songs and fell in love with his voice; at that time I had an open order for yahoo.jp and there was a reasonably-priced copy of this DVD. His music (at least, this particular sample) is exactly the sort of thing that I like; I wish I could describe it in such a way that others might want to listen to it. It’s a very emotional reaction, and I can’t really say why I like it beyond “it’s the sort of thing that I like”, unfortunately, which is why there are samples (somewhat randomly chosen).

live sample ~saezuri~:

unplugged sample 遠い朝 (with the koto player):

April 2008 log

Reading summary: started 15, finished 14. 11 2/3 reread. 7 mystery, 6 young-adult fantasy, 1 a bit of everything, 1 unsure (nominated for both mystery and sf). I planned to write an entry on the Donna Andrews books but think I waited too long (enjoyed, but don’t remember them well a few weeks later). I still have 15 drafts (though a few are wordpress-related notes).

xxxHOLiC DVD 1

This is the first disc of the first anime series based on the manga by CLAMP; there is a second series that started this month. Kimihiro Watanuki is a high-school boy who can see spirits; the spirits he sees are very interested in him. Yuuko Ichihara runs a shop that grants wishes for a price; one day Watanuki finds himself there and eventually agrees to work for Yuuko until he has earned enough for her to make him unable to see or interest the spirits. The other main characters are his classmates Himawari (his crush) and Doumeki (his rival/friend). He starts off as her housekeeper and eventually accompanies Yuuko on cases or investigates on his own or with Doumeki. I did write a slightly longer manga overview last year.

The manga crosses over with Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle; the crossover parts were not included (though they were in the Tsubasa anime). There was also a movie (A Midsummer Night’s Dream) released as part of a double feature with a Tsubasa movie; the crossover was a plot point there (an item from the xxxHOLiC portion was the solution to the problem in the Tsubasa portion).

I do like the anime itself, though I like the manga better. Anime Watanuki is considerably more annoying than manga Watanuki; a couple of pictures of him freaking out over whatever weirdness is much less annoying than listening to him. On the other hand, there were parts that were more obvious (to me, at least) when animated; among other things, I didn’t realize that Doumeki was occasionally provoking Watanuki until I saw them interact, and there was something with Himawari that I completely missed in the manga. It’s interesting watching the episodes knowing more about the series and seeing some of the foreshadowing and other details that I missed before.

The DVD contains the first four episodes and a few extras (an image gallery, textless songs, and trailers for the CLAMP Double Feature, Fullmetal Alchemist®, Glass Fleet, One Piece, Dragon Ball Z®, Vexille, and xxxHOLiC). The art in the anime is unsurprisingly not as detailed as the manga art, but is still very nice. I did end up buying the starter set (disc + box); I love the artwork and am a sucker for boxes anyway. The box art is at the end of the post; it is nice, but is not the same as the Japanese release (another random, senseless change). The DVD itself is in a clear case with a picture of Watanuki in a suit standing behind Yuuko lounging (it’s from the manga, somewhere), and the other side is Yuuko lounging. The DVD itself has the cover’s picture on it. The only inserts were a Funimation ad (this is apparently getting volumes released every six weeks; I didn’t know Funimation released any live action) and a survey card (to be sent to rightstuf). There were also a front-loaded trailer for the special edition of Origin, which I skipped and was not in the extras) I hate forced trailers, and have heard they have put spoiler-ish trailers for later volumes of ongoing series in them in the past, so I generally will not watch them.

I watched the dub this time through; I watched all of it originally as it was released in Japan (fansubbed). I like Yuuko’s dub voice better than her Japanese voice, and I think I’m starting to get used to Watanuki’s dub voice. Black Mokona is substantially less annoying than White Mokona, and I don’t have much of an opinion of the rest of the cast yet. Doumeki’s voice reminds me of someone else, but I can’t place who, though it might just be from the movie. He was also Seishirou in Tsubasa, but I haven’t watched that far enough for that to be relevant.

The opening (Suga Shikao, “19sai”) is gorgeously animated; the ending (Fonogenico, “Reason”) is extremely basic (Mokona sleeping in a spotlight on a dark background; Mokona dancing). The second ending (Buck-Tick, “Kagerou”) is also basic (air band with Mokona, Maru, Moro with no background); both endings seem like the sort of thing that could be easily adapted to any song. Coincidentally, one of the anime’s producers was BMG Japan; all of the artists involved are also with BMG Japan (according to amazon.co.jp, anyway).

I love this series and will continue buying it, but there were several minor annoyances:

• I did watch the dub and did not have my full attention on it, but I did notice a few things that were either bad translation or subtitles or random and unnecessary rewrites. I noticed this the most episode two: the girl with the ring is 27 vs 28 in the subtitles; one of her boyfriends is a museum coordinator vs an import sales businessman; in the survey she says 24 but the subtitles say 22; do lunch vs go out for a drink. These changes do not add anything to the dub. Maybe I shouldn’t be so annoyed with them; they don’t really affect the episode. On the other hand, if the changes do not contribute anything to the episode, why not use the correct translation.
• It annoys me to no end that the subtitles use “Yuko”; I can understand them not using Yûko like the US manga, but I would rather have seen “Yuuko”; oddly, Domeki instead of Dômeki or Doumeki doesn’t bother me as much (maybe because I like Yuuko better). I clearly wasn’t paying enough attention when I first watched this; the subtitles used “Doumeki”, which is very inconsistent of them.
• I wish there were some sort of cultural notes; I have the manga, which has notes in the back, and I watched fansubs, which used footnotes, so I know the background, but a casual viewer would not. The most glaring example of something that needed an explanation was the conclusion that Kimihiro Watanuki’s birthday was April 1st; April 1st is apparently a different reading of his name (and was explicitly stated by Yuuko in the manga), but to someone who did not know that, it would seem like a random conclusion. The other that I noticed was why Maru-dashi and Moro-dashi were not actually cute names (the manga’s translation notes indicate they both mean “exposing yourself in public).

—The Episodes—

The episode titles seem to be direct translations of the Japanese. The manga equivalents are listed because I was curious enough to look them up. The chapters are from the US releases; there are a few places where there are splash pages without new chapters, so I don’t know if the US and Japanese chapters are the same.

1. The Inevitable — Chapter 1 (v1). Watanuki finds himself in Yuuko’s shop and ends up working for her in exchange for her promise to remove his ability to see spirits and to remove the spirits’ interest in him. There’s an extra added bit where a spirit leaves Watanuki for a girl, and he freaks out because he doesn’t want to lose the interest of the spirits if losing that will hurt others. The Japanese title of this episode is hitsuzen; that term was not translated in the manga.
2. Falsehood — Chapters 1-3 (v1; she wanders in at the end of Chapter 1 (after a splash page)). A woman comes into the store complaining about being unable to move her pinky; Yuuko asks her about bad habits (she claims none) and gives her a ring to wear. Watanuki follows her and discovers what her bad habit is. This story was toned down for the anime and Himawari’s presence was removed.
3. Angel — Chapters 15-17 (v3); the bit with Himawari talking to Watanuki and Doumeki about the soccer game was moved here (chapter 12 (v2); it was originally followed by the ghost stories at Doumeki’s temple). Someone Himawari knows at another school has a problem; Yuuko sets up a meeting at a park to discuss it, and sends Watanuki to investigate so that Himawari won’t owe Yuuko anything. Doumeki ends up accompanying him. The “Angel” of the title is a game similar to an Ouija board: characters, numbers and symbols are written on a piece of paper, and two people think of a question, and hold a pencil that points to various characters and spells out an answer. It makes some sense that this story was moved up; it is the episode where Watanuki finds himself in Doumeki’s debt.
4. Fortune-Telling — Chapters 9-11 (v2). Yuuko shows Watanuki the difference between real and fake fortune tellers and explains how the fake one worked.

—Skipped chapters—

Chapter 4 (v1) is a brief crossover with Legal Drug, and the purchase of a baseball bat (a generic drugstore + bat purchase in episode 6, despite the bat being used in episode 3)
Chapters 5-6 (v1) are the woman with the computer addiction; I’m not sure if it was animated (yes, in episode 6)
Chapters 7 (v1) and 8 (v2) are the first appearance of the Tsubasa characters (not animated).
Chapters 12-14 (v2) are the ghost story party at Doumeki’s temple; if I remember correctly, it was animated, but some of the stories were changed.
the rest of v3 is the one with the monkey’s paw (animated, episode 8) and the first encounter with the fox-spirit oden (animated as part of episode five)

Nana (movie)

NANA is the first of two movies based on the manga by Ai Yazawa, released in the US by Viz; the second movie ought to follow eventually. It is about the lives of two twenty-ish girls named Nana who move to Tokyo at the same time; they meet on the train and then again apartment-hunting and decide to share an apartment. This one covers the first five volumes of the manga, beginning with the train ride to Tokyo and ending with Takumi’s first appearance. I had the same sort of reaction to this that I had to the manga: a bit of “been there, done that, don’t need to see it” but eventually was sucked into it and enjoyed it. It’s been a while since I read the manga, but it seems to be a fairly faithful adaptation; parts are left out in the interest of time, but overall it follows the manga.

Nana Komatsu (Aoi Miyazaki), nicknamed “Hachi” and called Nana in the subtitles, is a bit of a ditz. Her boyfriend Shoji and two of her other best friends are in art school in Tokyo; she either didn’t get in or didn’t apply and has been working to save up money for the move. Shoji let Hachi stay only until she found a place of her own; he did not want to live with her at this time. After her arrival, he meets Sachiko, another student, and starts spending some time with her. Hachi is also a big fan of the band Trapnest, especially their bassist Takumi. Her past is not mentioned at all in this beyond the previous existence of some sort of relationship with Shoji.

Nana Osaki (singer Mika Nakashima), called NANA in the subtitles, was the singer for the locally-popular band Black Stones; they broke up after the drummer (Yasu) wanted to concentrate on his studies and (according to the movie) the bassist (Ren) got an offer to join the up-and-coming band Trapnest (vocalist Reira is played by singer Yuna Ito) as a guitarist (which doesn’t make sense to me but may be part of the reason I had a hard time keeping the band members straight in the manga). Ren was also Nana’s boyfriend; in the manga, she had not heard from him since then. Her past is shown in flashbacks. Yasu is already in Tokyo; he accompanies Nana apartment-hunting. One day, he sends Nobu (Black Stone’s guitarist) to the apartment with a tape of a new song; the three of them decide to reform Black Stones and get Shin (a teenage runaway?) as their bassist. Shin was apparently previously aware of Black Stones; he named Ren as his favorite bassist without naming his previous band, which means that Hachi is the only one unaware of the connection. They eventually get a gig when another band cancels and gain fans. Hachi eventually finds out about Nana and Ren, and convinces Nana to see Trapnest with her after winning front-row tickets in her hometown.

The focus of the movie is the relationships: the various friendships between various characters, Nana K. and Shoji a little (she spent a lot of time thinking of Shoji, but I think Shoji and Sachiko had more screen time), Nana O. and Ren a lot, but mostly Nana K. and Nana O. Nana K. is not as well-developed in this as she was in the manga; her backstory is never mentioned, her relationship with Shoji doesn’t get much screen time, and her life in general isn’t really mentioned beyond a couple of scenes at her jobs (though now that I think about it, I’m not sure of her job in the later parts of the manga I read). I liked her friends from home and wish they had more screen time. It does make sense that they would focus more on Nana O. and her history and relationship with Ren since that relationship continues throughout the manga; Nana K.’s past was mostly useful for character development and Shoji doesn’t appear after the breakup.

They did a good job of adapting the visual style of the manga to a live-action movie; some of the clothes seemed impractical, but still looked good. I was impressed by Hachi’s friends; I didn’t think those looks would work on real people, but they managed to adapt them fairly successfully (though with obviously fake hair). I had no complaints about the acting, though I’m not sure how likely I would be to notice any problems with it due to the language differences. The music business as presented is a fantasy version, but that’s also true of the manga.

Hachi annoyed me at first; she was a bit too cheerful and bouncy and ditzy (appropriate, but less annoying in manga form). Either she settled down a bit or I got used to her. If Sachiko had had a larger part, I would have stopped watching due to her voice; it’s fairly high-pitched and little-girly almost to the point of sounding like she’s on helium; I cannot stand it.

The extras were four original Japanese trailers, director and cast profiles, and Viz trailers for Kamikaze Girls, Linda Linda Linda, Hula Girls, and Honey and Clover. I adore Kamikaze Girls, but would not have been interested based on that trailer.

I stopped reading the manga when Shojo Beat stopped running it; I liked it well enough, but had read reviews of the next few volumes and didn’t really care about where it was going (even more soap-opera-ish). If it was shorter or if the narration did not give premonitions of doom or if I could think that the Nanas ended up together at the end (at least as friends, but it was clear that they were each other’s most important people), I might have continued (though the summary for volume 10 made me curious).

The Japanese volume 19 of the manga and the US volume 10 will be released in May. Viz is releasing the manga and this movie; they were serializing the manga in their magazine Shojo Beat, but stopped at the end of volume 7. In addition, there is a second movie; several characters were recast, including Nana Komatsu, Ren, and Shin; there was a brief “coming soon” bit for it at the end. There is also an anime series, with Anna Tsuchiya providing the singing voice for Nana Osaki and OLIVIA for Reira; Viz apparently announced the license for it last summer, but I don’t think there’s been any news about a release yet. (information from various pages at Anime News Network).

Mushi-shi, DVD 2

This series follows the travels of Ginko, who is a Mushi-shi (Mushi master). Mushi are some sort of primal being, neither plant nor animal, neither alive nor dead; they can inhabit people or objects, and can occasionally appear human. Ginko wanders, and is generally either following rumors or has been summoned to investigate a problem that might involve mushi. This is an episodic series; there is a collector that has appeared in a couple of episodes, and items (relics of the mushi) have appeared in more than one episode, but so far, there is no sign of any sort of overall plot. The episodes themselves are of all sorts of types: happy endings, tragedies, bittersweet, life goes on, etc. I found the first volume of this to be a bit boring; I liked these episodes better, but still don’t understand the hype. The art is gorgeous, the dub is decent, but the plots are somewhat predictable and the music is bland. I need either interesting characters or involving plot to truly like a series; this has neither. I am indifferent to Ginko, and there are no other recurring characters or overall plot. I do like some of the individual stories, and will continue renting this, though.

—The Episodes—

6. Those Who Inhale the Dew
   Ginko investigates a “living god” on a mostly-inaccessible island at the behest of a friend of the girl who was turned into the “living god”. The ending of this was exactly what I expected it to be, though there were a few unexpected events along the way.
7. Raindrops and Rainbows
   While sheltering from the rain, Ginko meets a guy who left home to search for the rainbow that bewitched his father, recognizes the mushi involved, and travels with him in search of it. This episode was not very memorable; I don’t remember the resolution.
8. Where Sea Meets Man
   Ginko wanders into a village where there is a man whose wife went missing in a fog on the sea a few years before. Every few years that fog appears, and people are lost; their boats and luggage eventually wash up on the shore. He is hoping for his wife, but just wants some sort of resolution. Ginko leaves and returns later at the time of the reappearance of the fog; they set out to investigate and see if they can find out what happened to his wife. I liked this one, it was bittersweet but hopeful. I don’t think this one and the one before should have been aired together; Ginko gives the exact same advice to the men in both.
9. The Heavy Seed
   Ginko visits a village that has good harvests in the years when the surrounding villages have bad ones; with each of those harvests, someone in the village grows an extra tooth, loses it, and dies. I didn’t like the eventual resolution of this one; I didn’t think one of the characters deserved the ending he received.
10. The White Which Lives Within The Ink Stone
    I think this has the collector from one of the earlier episodes; some kids get into his collection and try out an ink stone. They all fall sick soon after and are extremely cold. Ginko tracks down the maker of the ink stone; there have been other deaths associated with it, and she has not made any more since then. Ginko identifies the mushi involved and finds a cure.

official English site at Funimation
listing at ANN

March 2008 log

reading summary: 12 total, 5 reread, 3 unfinished (one due to the end of the month); 4 mystery, 3 romance, 2 manga (both fantasy-ish), 1 fantasy (unfinished, will try again), 1 science fiction (unfinished, probably won’t try again), 1 a bit of everything (unfinished, still have). I need to spend less time online and readjust my Netflix (though I did watch more this month). I think i’ve accepted the fact that I’m going to let things sit in drafts for weeks and clear them out a couple of times a month; I wish I could convince myself that entries can be less than a thousand words, though.

Toshi – “Grace” Live

To be honest, I bought this because it was extremely cheap and because it had Chachamaru on guitar. I’m not particularly a fan of Toshi; his voice annoys me (never got into X Japan because of it, though I like some portion of the member’s solo works) and I don’t like his music enough to compensate for his voice. I put him in the category of “people who should not sing slow songs” (along with Chachamaru, among others), and there were a lot of slow songs on this. I don’t know why his voice annoys me and I don’t mind Chacha’s; they are very similar. Toshi’s voice is stronger, but there’s just something about it that grates on my nerves. I do like a few of his songs, though (and “Love Dynamics” sticks in my head). This was a VHS release from 1995, featuring shows at Nippon Budokan (3.16) and Urawashi Bunka Center (4.5).

I enjoyed this more than I expected to, though I would have liked it better with less slow songs. The early parts of this weren’t very exciting or energetic or intense. Toshi didn’t seem to really get into it until “Spacious Love” (there must have been an intermission; he had a new outfit), and his energy level remained high for for the rest of the show. The crowd seemed to enjoy it, even the early parts, so maybe it was just me. Toshi’s voice was a little rough in a couple of songs, but was for the most part decent. They left in the MCs, which I like, even though I can’t really understand them.

This is Toshi’s show (understandably) and the band is an afterthought, unfortunately (and I expected this). Even when I’m not watching for specific people, I still want to see the people who are actually playing the music, and even when I don’t care about specific members, I still think they should get equal time. The only members who got significant air time were the guitarist (thankfully) and the bassist; it was especially annoying because I couldn’t tell how many people were on stage. At about 45 minutes into it (out of 110), I fast forwarded to the end to check the credits to see if it was two different nights and if he had two keyboard players (yes to both). I was fairly sure of the two different nights (Chacha’s shirts were very different and at one point changed mid-song), but I wasn’t sure about the keyboard players. Shusei Tsukamoto was definitely behind Chacha at least part of the time and it was obvious there was one on the left at least part of the time, but the one on the left hadn’t been clearly shown, so I wasn’t sure if it was Tsukamoto in a different place on the other night or a different person on the left. There was one shot where there was someone with a ponytail on the left, but it could have been one of the backup singers. The few shots of the backup singers did show a keyboard player in the background, but the light was bad and I thought it was Tsukamoto. The other keyboard player was occasionally in the background of the singers, but only had a couple of close-ups of his own; the drummer was often shown from the back and only had a couple of shots from the front (though he too was occasionally in the background; he was center stage).

I’m not sure how much of this was taken from which show; a lot of the crowd shots were obviously Budokan. Either all of Toshi was taken from the same show, or he wore the exact same thing at both. He did go from wearing a blue suit with a solid yellow shirt to wearing a mostly yellow but patterned shirt with the blue pants, though. Chacha was mostly from the same show; his outfits were very different, but one was only obvious in a couple of songs. The bassist’s outfits were different, but not immediately obviously so; I think both were black and white, but different amounts of each, so it wasn’t easy to tell at a glance which he was wearing. The drummer had a black shirt and a red shirt; sometimes it switched in the same song (one of the cameras was behind him, so he was on screen a lot). The others weren’t really on screen enough for me to notice what they were wearing, really; I think the sax player had on the same or similar outfit whenever he was shown; Tsukamoto had a very loud shirt whenever he was shown, but it could have been two loud shirts. VHS means pausing and finding specific moments is a pain.

Musicians:

Guitar: Yukihiro “Cha Cha MARU” Fujimura (藤村幸宏／茶々丸）　(introduced as Chachamaru)
Bass: Hisafumi Maeda (前田久史) (goes by and was introduced as Jimmy)
Drums: Kozo Suganuma (菅沼孝三)
Piano & Keyboards: Shusei Tsukamoto (塚本周成)
Keyboards: Masahiko Terada (寺田正彦)
Sax: Takeshi Abe (阿部剛)
Chorus: Megumi Okino, Rieko Sakai, Yasumi Maeda

Names as credited (punctuation and capitalization as shown); kanji for some of these was not easily found.

Songs:

1. New Horizons — some pre-show behind-the-scenes
2. Asphalt Jungle — bassist in the spotlight briefly (thankfully; it’s a very bass-heavy song)
3. Love Dynamics — female backup singers who look like they belong in the 80s; ran up one side of the stage, patting Chacha on the head on the way, ran into the wall coming back
4. Dear My Friends — MC before; keyboard player (Tsukamoto?) was actually shown
5. Moon Stone — Tsukamoto’s hands (I assume)! bass solo and acoustic guitar solo! I didn’t realize the words “Moon Stone” were in this until I heard Toshi sing it (it’s lyrics Toshi/music Chachamaru; it’s also on Vienna’s Unknown and Chacha’s English pronunciation is not great). On the CDs, it’s called “Moonstone”.
6. Everlasting Love — acoustic, slow
7. YOKAN — another short MC before; still acoustic; prominent bass, and percussion (the first time he was shown from the front); Chacha had a line to sing (no backing vocals, just a random line, and there’s no rational reason why Toshi’s voice annoys me but his doesn’t bother me)
8. made in HEAVEN — back to electric, but still a slow song, and a named musician: Chachamaru
9. Spacious Love — probably an intermission before; there was a costume change for Toshi (from a blue suit and yellow shirt to a red suit, no shirt). He’s much more energetic and grinning; this is an extremely upbeat song, though; sax and drum solo; gospel-ish towards the end
10. PARADISE — large balls or balloons for the audience, and he’s running around kicking them back and molested the bassist and played with his hair
11. Somebody Loves You — someone threw flowers, and he caught them; bassist and guitarist switched sides; can almost see the other keyboardist behind the backup singers; lots of light (I think Budokan had the house lights on for this song). I’m not familiar with the song, but he sounds a little rough. This one’s not as cleanly edited as the others, partly because of the difference in light, and Toshi is often in a different part of the stage when the angle changes.. The mythical other keyboard player got a few shots; too bad his head was turned. Much interaction with the audience, Toshi had a camera, and introduced the band, and each member had a solo. The other keyboard player had a more exciting solo than Tsukamoto. Only two chorus members for the introductions (Megumi and Rie). Left afterwards
12. Beyond the time — encore? I didn’t know Toshi played piano. Yet another outfit (tour shirt, the design on the shirt matched his necklace). I fast forwarded through this; am generally not interested in any singer+slow song+piano
13. Carry On — another brief MC, Toshi with a 12-string acoustic; Chacha also has a tour shirt and is the only one who changed and was playing slide guitar!
14. Beautiful Harmony — another MC, another slow song; a bit more intense than the earlier ones
15. Grace — another slow song. fog and a backing track (more fast-forwarding; it looked like the singers were there, but no one else was); everyone came out for a bow (and the bassist had a tour shirt on)

Agatha Christie’s Marple: Series 1: 4:50 from Paddington

This is the last volume of the first series of the recent BBC adaptations of Agatha Christie’s Miss Marple books. The alternate title for the book is What Mrs. McGillicudy Saw! The book is one of my favorites, but it’s been a while since I’ve read it. I actually watched this one on the tv instead of the computer, and discovered that it has closed-captioning, so that’s one less complaint. I’d rather have subtitles, but captions are better than nothing. I’ve been trying to avoid spoilers, but there will probably be some in this because this adaptation was not particularly faithful to the novel.

I’d been enjoying these adaptations, even with the changes; I didn’t like the way Miss Marple’s character was changed, but could deal with most of the other changes. For the most part, the changes didn’t really affect the flow of the story; I could have done without the change of the colonel in A Murder is Announced from happily married to depressed alcoholic bachelor with a romantic subplot, though. In some ways, this one is very close to a complete rewrite of the book; the plot is fairly close to the original, but the characters are for the most part different people. I think the only people who retain their original characterization are Emma Crackenthorpe (who had little personality either way), Bryan Eastley and maybe Dr. Quimper. The murderer’s motivations were changed slightly, and they removed a murder. They also added Harold’s wife as an involved character; in the book, she existed but was elsewhere.

Mrs. McGillicudy is on her way to St. Mary Mead to visit Miss Marple (via the 4:50 from Paddington); after waking up from a nap, she sees a train on a parallel track, and in one of the windows, she sees a woman being strangled. No one really believes her, and no body was found. She is going to Ceylon in the near future (I always had the impression it was to visit her son or other relative; this implied a recent widower), and is happy to leave further investigation in Miss Marple’s hands. In the movie, they use maps and timetables to figure out where the body might be, but in the book, Miss Marple consults with the vicar’s son (maps) and her nephew’s son (timetables); the end result is that the body must be on the grounds of Rutherford Hall. Lucy Eyelesbarrow has a degree, but decided there was more money to be made in domestic service. She takes short-term jobs only, and at one point looked after Miss Marple while she was recovering from pneumonia. Miss Marple contacts her, and she manages to get a job at Rutherford Hall to be near her “Aunt Jane” while she looks for the body, and Miss Marple finds somewhere to stay nearby. She eventually finds the body in a sarcophagus (book: in a barn full of random things Luther collected; show: in a mausoleum on the property).

Rutherford Hall is owned by Luther Crackenthorpe; his father was wealthy, did not like Luther, and left his estate in trust for Luther’s children. Luther’s wife, one daughter (Edith) and one son (Edmund) are dead, his other daughter (Emma, never married) lives there, and his sons (Cedric, Harold, Alfred) live elsewhere. Edith was married to Bryan Eastley, a former fighter pilot, and they had one son (she died in childbirth). Harold is the only other one who is married; he has no children. In the book, Edmund wrote that he had met a French woman (Martine) and was planning on being married, and the next they knew he had been killed; in the book, they never met her, but in the show, there is a flashback of him bringing her to meet the family. Emma had received a letter supposedly from Martine about a possible visit about her son (essentially, needed money for support in the book at least); there is a possibility that the woman in the sarcophagus was French, which causes some concern. Lucy continues investigating, while flirting with or being propositioned by most of the male cast (a slightly different part in each version). At one point, they have curry for dinner; everyone is sick afterwards, and someone dies. In the book, some people leave afterwards and someone else dies; in the show, they all remain at the house and no one else dies. Miss Marple eventually puts all the pieces together and stages a re-enactment of the original murder for Mrs. McGillicudy’s benefit and the murderer is caught; in the show, they do this on the trains, which seems highly improbable.

Miss Marple is even more out of character in this, especially considering that in the book, she explicitly thinks she is too old for adventures. More than once, she arrives uninvited to see Lucy. At the beginning, instead of calling Lucy, she barges into a party to see her. I cannot see Miss Marple barging in anywhere unless it was a matter of life or death (and maybe not even then, if she could find another way). Later, she invites herself to stay with Detective Inspector Tom Campbell (who spent at least part of his childhood in St. Mary Mead), and visits Rutherford Hall more than once. In the book, she might have invited herself to stay with someone, but it was her former housekeeper who takes in lodgers.

Lucy’s personality makes it hard for me to believe she is as successful of a housekeeper as she is; she has a reputation for excellent service, which would explain some of it. I can’t quite put my finger on it, but she seems a bit forward for someone acting as a housekeeper; assertive, bossy, managing would all be understandable, but she seems to act more like part of the family than a housekeeper. In the show, she eats with the Crackenthorpes, though I don’t think it’s mentioned where she takes her meals in the books. In her first scene, she is working for Noel Coward and is singing for his guests before setting the table; it seemed unlikely that the Lucy of the books would agree to sing for the guests. Miss Marple barges in on his farewell speech to her. She’s also less subtle in her investigations: in the book, she practices golf as an excuse to explore the grounds and there’s a barn full of junk for her to consider straightening up as an excuse for poking around in; in the show there’s only a mausoleum, and no real reason for her to go poking around in there at night.

In the books, Luther Crackenthorpe was a miser and not particularly fond of his late wife or his children and was just mean; in this, he was still mourning his wife ten years later and was a lot nicer. Alfred Crackenthorpe was a different sort of scum in this (in the book, vaguely financial scams, never proven, no girlfriend; in this, some sort of scam involving acting as his girlfriend’s distraught husband) and was a weepy drunk because his girlfriend left him. Harold Crackenthorpe is an at least attempted rapist, and makes an offhand comment about never being able to like women. Cedric Crackenthorpe has a completely different alibi, and is not as much of a womanizer in this as in the book. In the book, there is a love triangle with Lucy, Brian, and Cedric; in this, it’s Lucy, Brian, and the Inspector. Bryan Eastley’s character is the same, but he was actually acquainted with Martine (and apparently never heard about the letter).

I am very tempted to rent Nemesis next, even though it is the last of the third series. Looking at its cast, it has to be a wholesale rewrite of the adaptation-in-name-only variety; I reread it last fall, and did not recognize most of the character names in the cast list, and there was apparently a convent added to the story (Mother xxx and Sister xxx in the cast list).

Previously:
The Murder at the Vicarage
The Body in the Library
A Murder is Announced

on wikipedia: Noël Coward, Agatha Christie
listing on imdb